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The University of Michigan’s health system, Michigan Medicine, has rolled out a pilot program promising personalized service, reduced wait times and more time with a primary care physician for patients willing to pay a $2,700 annual fee. Hundreds of the system’s own doctors and staff, however, are criticizing the program as conflicting with its mission as a nonprofit system tied to a public university.

Health information exchanges (HIEs) can be part of an effective response to natural or manmade disasters, according to CMS and ONC officials, but that requires agencies and healthcare organizations have a plan before a disaster strikes.

The same people who design theme park attractions at Walt Disney World and Disneyland will now be working on children’s hospitals as part as a $100 million, five-year project that will begin with Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.

Healthcare consumers appear quite comfortable with digital-based health tools, including those with artificial intelligence capabilities, according to a survey released by Accenture at the HIMSS18 conference in Las Vegas.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Millions of opioids have been taken by millions of patients dealing with back pain or osteoarthritis in hips and knees. But how effective are these prescriptions? Turns out, not all that great in long-term outcomes compared to nonopioid medications, according to research in the&nbsp;Journal of the American Medical Association.

Starting in 2010, states began implementing Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment, or DSRIP, programs aimed at changing how hospitals and other providers delivered care to Medicaid beneficiaries. New York was one of the later states to adopt the initiative but saw success in reducing preventable utilization while tackling the effects of the opioid epidemic.

Uber, which held 84 percent of the U.S. market in 2017, has plans to help patients and providers arrange rides&mdash;with a March 1 announcement of a service that will allow clinic and hospital personnel to order rides for patients and clients.

The accountable care organizations (ACOs) that saved money through the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) spent less on care in inpatient or skilled nursing settings while increasing spending on care provided in physician offices, according to a study published in the American Journal of Accountable Care.

UnitedHealth Group has announced plans to expand its work with physicians, health systems and CMS in working with bundled payments in fee-for-service Medicare, including the new Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced program.

Trained community or lay health workers (LHW) helped a rural hospital in Kentucky lowered its 30-day readmission rates among a high-risk population by almost 48 percent, according to a study published in Health Education Research.

Anthem has been criticized and even sued over policies in several states where it won&rsquo;t pay for emergency room visits it later determines to be unnecessary. The insurer has now softened those restrictions, but American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) said the changes don&rsquo;t go far enough.

Purdue Pharma, best known for making and selling OxyContin, announced Feb. 10 that it will stop marketing opioid drugs to physicians. The company also stated it will lay off half of its sales force, with the remaining staff of 200 focusing on other medications.

Medicaid patients face a host of challenges in accessing care, with reliable, timely transportation often being a major consideration. A recently published study, though, showed rates of missed primary care appointments were unaffected when Medicaid patients were offered free ridesharing services.

Some&nbsp;11.8 million people signed up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act (ACA)&rsquo;s insurance exchanges for 2018, down from 12.2 million the year before. Considering changes that were expected to depress enrollment&mdash;like HHS shortening the open enrollment period for Healthcare.gov and cutting its advertising budget by 90 percent&mdash;signups &ldquo;remained generally stable,&rdquo; according to a report from the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP).

In 2011, as outlined in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare began offering wellness visits at no cost to fee-for-service beneficiaries. The goal of the annual checkup was to introduce preventative care and address specific risks such as depression and risk of falling.